Indian author-editor Badhwar to represent India at Prague Literary Festival

Mon, Nov 06 2017 19:12 IST

4 months ago

New Delhi , Nov.6 : Award winning author and veteran editor Inderjit Badhwar has been chosen by the prestigious Prague Writers Festival (PWF) to represent India at its annual literary conclave to be held at the European City of Spires between November 9-15 this year.

Delhi-based Badhwar, former editor of India Today, is now Editor of India Legal. He was a Pulitzer nominee when he reported for the investigative team of Jack Anderson in the US. He was awarded France's top "Prix Literaire" in the category of "Best Foreign Debut Novel of the Year" for his book "The Chamber of Perfumes".

PWF is rated among the top 36 global festivals. Hosting an impressive array of authors, Nobel laureates, and Pulitzer Prize winners, PWF has become the place to be for anyone involved in the global literary scene. All discussions are open to the public, and centered around current topics of our time.

Previous invitees of Indian origin have included Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy. Other literary giants who have featured in the past include Harold Pinter, William Styron, Nadine Gordimer, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Banville ... among others.

Says Badhwar: "I am overwhelmed. I feel like a pygmy compared to these greats whom I grew up reading. "

This year's theme is "The Fire Next Time", the title of American author James Baldwin's masterpiece-- a peep into the destruction that awaits mankind if we continue in our destructive habits.

Badhwar will be reading excerpts from his book as well as articles and editorials he has penned in his long journalistic career in India Today, and India Legal, the magazine he now edits in Delhi.

In panel discussions he will be joined by Wesley Lowery, political editor of the Washington Post whose recent book on the racist slayings of African Americans by white police officers, "They Cant Kill Us All",

won him the Pulitzer Prize.

In panel discussions he will be joined by Wesley Lowery, political editor of the Washington Post whose recent book on the racist slayings of African Americans by white police officers "They Cant Kill Us All"

won him the Pulitzer Prize.

Other prominent thinkers and authors participating with Badhwar at the 2017 PWF include Affinity Konar (US), author of "Mischling"; Robert Menasse (Austria), "Wings of Stone"; Magdalena Platzova (Czech Republic), "Aaron's Leap", Mohammed Achari (Morocco), "The Arch and the Butterfly"); Adonis, (Syria), one of the most influential and dominant Arab poets of the modern era; Kirill Medvedev, poet, musician (Russia),"It's No Good";Joseph Kanon (USA), "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold; " Maria Golia (US) "Cairo: City of Sand. " Ayse Kulin (Turkey) "Last Train to Istanbul."